He acknowledges that a more immediate effect of the law may be to inhibit risk taking that's necessary for growth. But if companies are now compelled to pay more attention to the downside as well as the upside of their actions, "I say that's not so bad," says Howell. "During the go-go years, companies were stretching the rubber band pretty far, and maybe they should let it snap back a little bit."
Besides, Howell thinks that any such risk aversion will be short-lived. "I think once people have confidence that their systems are all that they need to be, then you'll be able to take greater risk and know that you can assess the impact of the risk that you're taking," he says. "In the long run, the re-creation of a strong underpinning of a corporation's finance and accounting system will permit companies to take well-judged risks, whereas before I think in some respects we were flying by the seat of our pants."
Howell adds that he's confident that once CFOs "get past all this blocking and tackling in internal auditing and getting the training and development to focus on those basics as well as ethics, they'll revert to focusing on top-line growth and investments for the future."
Ronald Fink is a deputy editor of CFO.
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